26 May, 2003

Nepalese Sherpa Lhakpa Gyelu, 35, smashed by almost two hours, the Everest speed climbing record set just three days ago. Lhakpa, making his tenth ascent of the world's highest peak, reached the summit from Base Camp in a time of 10 hours 56 minutes according to the Nepal Tourism Ministry.

Normally, most climbers may take weeks of preparation and acclimatization and about four days to climb from Advanced Base Camp up the mountain's steep and icy slopes to the summit of the world's tallest mountain at 29,035 feet.

Gyelu first climbed Everest in 1993 with a British expedition and has repeated his feat almost every year since then.

On Friday, Pemba Dorje Sherpa, 25, smashed the previous record set in 2000 of 16 hours 56 minutes by the legendary Sherpa Babu Chhiri, when he reached the summit in a time of 12 hours 45 minutes.

A ministry statement said another Sherpa, Aapa, who like most Sherpa uses only one name, made his record 13th summit of Mount Everest.

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Aapa, 43, first climbed Everest in 1989 with a New Zealand team led by veteran climber Rob Hall, one of eight people who died during a storm near the summit in 1996. He improved on his own record of 12 ascents when he reached the summit from the popular Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953. He was last atop Everest in May, 2002.

A record of 65 expeditions are on Mount Everest this season which ends this week. New Zealand's Hillary is in Nepal to attend a series of celebrations in Kathmandu this week to mark his ascent of Everest. Tenzing, who lived in Darjeeling, India, died in 1986.

More than 1,200 people have reached the Everest summit and 175 have lost their lives on the mountain.

MountainZone.com Staff